Coming Out
by Nyte Kat
Summary: This is a one shot about Jake Clawson coming to terms with who he is by being honest with the kats who matter in his life. This story deals with homosexuality, if you have a problem with that then do not read this story


**Disclaimer: I've been reading a lot of fics lately where Jake is gay. And I have to say that it seems to fit. I don't own the swat kats, and I apologise if I offend anyone with my writing. This fic is my take on Jake being gay, and his coming out of the closet and realizing himself. There will be some sexual dialogue, though no explicit sex scenes. Sorry, all you pervs. I'm one too, but I have to keep it clean. Thanks for reading. And please review.**

* * *

Chance quirked a whisker as Jake walked by. "Overkill on the cologne, there bud."

Jake winced. "Really?"

"Heh, yeah." Chance felt his eyes start to water. "Must be one hot date."

Jake smiled and disappeared back into the bathroom, hoping to dull down his scent a little.

"Do I get to meet her?" Chance yelled from the living room.

Jake took a deep breath and frowned. "Maybe if things work out!" He yelled out the bathroom door.

Chance half chuckled. "Yeah, wouldn't want the rebound kat to be better looking than the ex, now would we?"

Jake walked back into the living room. "Somehow, I don't think it would work out between you two. Is this better?"

Chance wrinkled his nose. "A little. And what do you mean by that?"

"I just don't think you two would get along that way," Jake said. "Nothing against you."

"So what's her name?" Chance prodded.

"Why all the questions? I'm going to be late as it is." Jake avoided answering Chance by grabbing his wallet and keys. "See ya.. in the morning if things go good."

Chance shrugged. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"I'll keep that in mind." Jake said before letting himself out.

* * *

"I don't understand why you don't just tell him." Seth said in a delicate voice. He gracefully picked up his California roll with his chopsticks.

"He's so macho. Really. Sometimes I see him as one of those kats that would fly off the handle and punch someone in the face for being gay." Jake poked at his tofu and sighed. "I really don't want to lose his friendship."

"And what about your family? Don't want to lose them either, then? Or any of your other friends?" Seth held Jake's gaze.

Jake sighed and took a bite of his tofu, being the first to lower his eyes. "Seth, you make it sound so easy."

"Because it is, dear." Seth smiled. "When I told my mother I was gay, I expected her to flip. Go figure, she had already figured it out on her own. You know how mothers are. Intuitive."

"I've met your mom, Seth. And she's nothing like mine." Jake pointed his chopsticks at Seth.

"How?" Seth leaned back, crossing his arms over his light pink silk button up shirt.

"Well, for one, my mother is Jewish. They don't take anything calmly. And I mean anything."

Seth raised an eyebrow, urging him to give an example.

"Okay," Jake continued. "When I was 12, this kitten picked a fight with me after school and he hit me. It wasn't anything bad, just a scratch on my cheek. And she went nuts. Called the school, the kids parents, told everyone at Sabbath Dinner that Saturday. Over a scratch on my face."

Seth smiled. "So she worries a little. She is your mom. I'm just saying, give it some thought. After all, won't it be better if you're the one who tells them instead of them finding out?"

Jake leaned back. "Yeah, it would be."

"Well, then that settles it. Now, I think we're finished here." Seth pulled the linen napkin off his lap and set it on the table. "I was thinking we could hit that hot little club that just opened up over in the west end."

"Sounds exciting," Jake replied, taking the check. "I'll go pay this at the counter." He said, pulling the tip out of his wallet.

Seth watched him walk away, and then stood up, straightening his tight straight leg jeans. "I wonder if he's a top or a bottom." He said to himself with a hungry grin.

* * *

The next day, Jake found himself thinking about Seth's advice on his way home. "Easier said then done." Jake said aloud. He wondered if he should just catch Chance off guard and blurt it out, or say he needs to talk to him about something. Then he wondered if he should get a case of beer, get Chance drunk, and tell him while he's intoxicated. He already knew how it would go with his mom. She'd go melodramatic on him, tearing up over how her son has strayed from the path of God to the road of confusion. And then she'd say she couldn't accept him as her son anymore. "Why can't this be simple?" Jake snapped loudly. "I guess I should start with my mom. At least that way I can try and work it out enough to still have a home if Chance goes apeshit on me." With that in mind, he turned into the scrapyard he called home, for now anyway.

"It's safe for me to say things went great?" Chance grinned from under the hood of an Enforcer squad car.

"Well enough for me to get home at noon." Jake replied. "I need to change and then call my mom about something and I'll be down to help you."

"Call your mom? You never want to call your mom. Everything alright?" Chance quickly gave Jake his undivided attention.

Jake felt panic rise up in his throat. "Yeah. Yeah. Everything's fine. I just need some advice. That's all."

Chance narrowed his eyes. He didn't miss seeing Jake get that "Deer in the headlights" look. "Okay." He replied letting it go.

Jake took a deep breath when he got upstairs. "I can do this. I'll just set up a time to have breakfast with her and tell her in person. And then figure out how to say it." He picked up the phone and quickly dialed her number.

"Hello?" His mother's slightly nasal voice asked.

"Hey mom." Jake said, suprising himself with the steadiness of his voice.

"Jacob! Darling, you never call me. Is everything alright? Do you need some money? Are you sick?"

Jake winced, "No, mom, everything's fine. I just need to talk to you."

"Well, what is it?"

"It doesn't seem right to do it over the phone, I was hoping we could get breakfast together tomorrow and talk about it?" Jake chewed nervously on his bottom lip.

"You aren't in trouble are you?" She pryed.

"No. Mom. I just need some advice. Could you just humour me?" Jake felt himself losing his patience.

"If it's that important, why don't you just ask me now?" She asked.

"Because... crud, nevermind. Don't worry about it. I'll just figure it out on my own." Jake gave up.

"Jacob..." His mom tried to persuade him.

"No. I said nevermind. I have to go. Bye mom." Jake hung up. Maybe he should try Chance first.

* * *

Chance looked up from the car he was working on. He watched Jake stare intently at the engine, leaning over it with a deeply concerned look on his face. Jake was chewing on his bottom lip, which was an instant sign that his mind wasn't on fixing cars. "Unless you're telekinetic now, I don't think staring is going to fix the problem. We don't have all the time in the world, you know."

"What?" Jake looked up, a look of guilt on his face for having been caught unfocused.

"You sure you're okay?" Chance crossed his arms over his burly chest.

Jake felt a knot form in the pit of his stomach. "This might sound a little weird, coming from me, but if I needed to get something off my chest, you wouldn't judge me, no matter what it was, right?"

Chance studied Jake's face for a moment before answering. "As long as you arent living a double life as a vigilante and a super villain."

"Chance, I'm serious." Jake rubbed his eyes, feeling the dull throb of a headache forming in the front of his head.

"Jake, you're pretty much asking if you can trust me. And considering the circumstances, I think that's a question you shouldn't even need to ask. So whatever it is you need to say, just come out with it." Chance said calmly.

For a moment, Jake thought he was going to be physically ill. "You know how whenever I go out with someone, I never let you meet them?"

Chance nodded.

"Well, thats because I'm not going out with a shekat." Jake tried to beat around the bush about it, hoping Chance could fill in the blanks.

"What are you trying to say, Jake?" Chance had a clue, but he had to really hear Jake say it to believe it. And by the looks of it, Jake was having a pretty hard time getting it out.

Jake gave Chance a pleading look, knowing Chance wasn't that dense, but Chance just gave him a look urging him to continue. He lowered his gaze and inhaled sharply. "Chance, I'm gay." He said as firmly as he could, wincing a little as his voice cracked and the knot in his stomach twisted tighter.

Chance swore he saw the color drain from Jake's face. "Hey, do you need to sit down or something?"

Jake shook his head, a frantic look in his eyes as he darted over to the large trash can near the garage bay doors. His nerves proved too much for his stomach to handle. Chance rolled his eyes, watching Jake throw up with mild amusement mixed with a little guilt. "Listen, Jake. I've known for about a month now."

"And you just let me work myself up over telling you?" Jake snapped. "You're an ass, Chance."

Chance rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I know. I'm just terrible, making you be honest for yourself instead of relying on other people to figure it out and deal with it."

Jake wiped his mouth. "How'd you find out?"

"Dumb luck." Chance said. "I had a date, needed a condom, decided to sneak one out of your room and found this magazine called 'Tom on Tom: Hot Ass Action, orgy edition'." Chance nearly laughed saying the title, and Jake's face burned crimson with embarassment. "I kind of put two and two together, considerring your best friend is the most flaming kat I've ever met."

Jake shook his head. Seth had been right, it was easier than he thought. He felt most of the burden lifted now. All that was left was to tell his mother. Jake frowned. "And to think, I thought you'd be the least accepting of this." Jake almost laughed.

"That what you had to tell your mom about?" Chance kept himself from smiling. "Because, you know she's going to flip out."

Jake nodded. "I was trying to tell her in person, but she kept wanting to know what was going on over the phone."

"You want to just drive over there and tell her?" Chance looked at the clock. "Because it's only 3:00. We can close up shop for a couple of hours."

"You'd come with me?" Jake had a sort of shocked look on his face.

Chance shook his head sarcastically, "No, I was going to let her go nuts with no one there to drag you out before she kills you." He sighed. "Of course, as long as she doesn't get it in her head that I'm gay. Because I'm not."

Jake thought he almost saw Chance shiver, and he cracked a smile. "I guess I should just do it and get it over with, right?"

Chance nodded and grabbed the keys to the tow-truck.

* * *

Jake gave Chance a nervous look before knocking on the door. His youngest sister opened the door. Jake picked her up. "Hey Lisa, where's mom?" Lisa was six, the youngest of 3 girls and 1 brother. "Cooking." She replied, "She said you'd probably show up. Mommy always knows when you're coming over."

"That's because she spies on me." Jake said, setting Lisa down. She quickly ran into the living room to watch tv. Upstairs he could hear his other two sisters arguing about something. It was never quiet at home. "Mom!" Jake called from the foyer.

"In the kitchen, sweetie." She called back. Jake turned to Chance, "You wanna go watch tv with Lisa? I think she's watching Scaredy Kat."

Chance nodded, knowing it would be better if he wasn't right there. Jake walked alone into the kitchen. His mother was rolling out a homemade pasta. There were already two loaves of homemade bread on the counter, ready for Sabbath dinner. "Got a minute?" Jake asked, knowing it would take more than a minute.

"I'm all ears, baby." She rarely ever called her kits anything but affectionate names.

Jake mentally calmed himself and spoke in a flat, even tone. "Mom, I'm gay."

She immediately looked up. "You're what?"

"I'm gay." Jake repeated, watching his mother intently. She wiped the flour off her paws and walked around the counter.

"No, you aren't. Don't be silly. I raised you better than that." She said firmly.

"This doesn't have anything to do with how you raised me, mom." Jake defended.

"The Hell it doesn't. I did my best to raise a good, moral family without your father around to help us. And apparently I didn't teach you right. This goes against God. This goes against everything I believe in." His mother pointed a claw at her only son.

"It's not your life, mom." Jake said. "I can't keep pretending I'm something I'm not."

His mother's eyes widened. "And just how long have you been... this way?"

"I've known since I was 17." Jake replied. He wasn't prepared for his mother to slap him. It wasn't one of those muffled slaps. It was a loud stinging smack. One that Chance heard in the living room. After she did it, his mother backed away, a look of shock on her face. She'd never struck one of her children, no matter how bad she felt they screwed up or deserved it.

'Here it comes,' thought Jake. And he was right. She started crying. "Oh I must be a terrible mother for you to make a choice like this." Jake watched as tears spilled out of her gray eyes and down her cheeks. She wept loudly. He shook his head.

"Okay, you know what? I'm sorry that you're disappointed in me. But I'm not dealing with the guilt trips anymore. I'm 24 years old. I don't live under your roof. That means I can make my own choices and I have to live with them, not you. So you can either accept it and accept that nothing you can do can change me, or you can just forget about me and get on with your life. Because I won't let you guilt me into being someone I'm not." Jake paced while he spoke.

"If your father was still with us, he wouldn't have stood for this." She continued to cry.

"You talk like he's dead." Jake sighed. "When you know he isn't."

"Well, you're going to end up just like him if you don't stop this foolishness!"

"He's in prison for pushing Granma's car off a cliff. Not for being gay." Jake rolled his eyes.

"And what about all those diseases associated with... homosexuality."

Jake threw his arms up. "You know what, you win. If being happy with my life means not caring about having your approval then I'll live. I've done it before. You flipped out like this when I joined the Enforcers instead of going to college, then you flipped out again when I got kicked off. And now you're flipping out, again. So fine, whatever." Jake turned to go, shaking his head as his mother let out another loud dramatic wail. By now, the headache Jake felt coming on earlier was in full effect, pounding against every inch of his skull.

"Chance, you ready?" Jake called on his way out of the kitchen, but Chance was already waiting on him.

"That didn't sound like it went well." Chance stated.

"I didn't expect much better." Jake frowned. "Let's go home."

* * *

Two days later

Razor jumped out of the jet, his adreniline still kicking hard. They'd actually managed to stop Dark Kat without blowing up too many buildings, though both the Swat Kats were covered in pink goo from smashing creeplings. "Dibs on the shower." Razor said, kicking his flight suit off first, then removing his helmet and mask. When he didnt get a response, he looked around to see T-Bone's flight suit already on the floor and Chance no where in sight. "Crud!" Jake hissed. "Cheater." Sighing, he went upstairs to wait his turn. The answering machine blinked a new message. Jake pressed play.

"Jake, its your mom. Listen, I've thought about it, and even though I'm not really okay with it, I'll just deal with it. I hope you'll come around and see things my way, but if not, that's okay too. I just don't want to lose one of my babies. I love you, son." The message ended. Jake smirked and picked up the phone, calling Seth to tell him that he was right. He did feel better now that he wasn't living a lie. He could be himself without worrying what other kats thought, because the only kats that mattered already knew.

* * *

**Well, I've become addicted to this one-shots. Don't worry though, I'm working on part two of Dirty Bombs. I apologise for all the readers I've left hanging on with how and why questions.**

**This story is dedicated to my friends who aren't afraid to wear their gay pride flags with courage, and to my long time best friend who has yet to come out to her own family or even come to terms with her sexuality in her own mind.**

**Read and Review**

**NK**

**disclaimer, again. I don't own anything.**


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